Richard J Cremieux is a principal in the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie, and is the chairman of the Baker & McKenzie North American Hotels, Resorts & Tourism practice. Mr Cremieux's practice focuses on commercial real estate law, property development, construction law, secured lending, and common ownership law. He represents clients in connection with the purchase, sale, exchange, development (including land-use issues), construction, financing, leasing, and management of commercial real estate of all types, with a strong concentration in hotel and resort properties. His practice also includes the representation of both hotel owners and hotel managers in the structure and negotiation of hotel management agreements, and the structuring of common ownership arrangements relating to hotel/condominium regimes, condominium conversions, cooperative regimes, and club regimes. Mr Cremieux has extensive experience representing both landlords and tenants in the negotiation of commercial leases, and in CMBS real estate financing transactions, including structuring and closing direct to capital markets financing transactions secured by real estate. He further represents owners, general contractors, and subcontractors in the structuring of complex design-build arrangements. Mr Cremieux was one of only 22 Illinois real estate attorneys named in the listing of Who's Who/United States Real Estate Lawyers (www.whoswholegal.com); he was also acknowledged in the Expert Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers as among the top real estate lawyers in the US; he is recognized in The Legal 500 as an expert in hotel and resort development, and is recognized in the 2013 edition as one of the "Best Lawyers in America." Mr Cremieux has led transactions in the US, including Hawaii, and also Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe, with a concentration of transactions in Chicago, New York, and California, with a concentration in luxury hotel properties. Mr Cremieux's clients include hotel and other commercial real estate investors in the US, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as hotel and commercial real estate management companies and all other parties involved in the development process for commercial real estate.

Mr Cremieux is a member of the American Bar Association (Real Estate Finance and Construction Form Committees of the Section of Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law, and the Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the Section of Corporation, Banking, and Business Law), the General Assembly of the Illinois State Bar Association (Sections on real estate law, environmental law, and commercial, banking, and bankruptcy law), and the Chicago Bar Association (real estate finance subcommittee and environmental subcommittee of the real estate committee).